Come winter, menswear shifts into heavy fashion show season. Peacocks, bloggers and boldface names strut and preen in Florence for Pitti Uomo, and in the City of Light for Paris Fashion Week. This week, the action shifts to New York Fashion Week.

Currently making the rounds locally is the latest work of Benny Gold, local design and streetwear star. Gold, whose eponymous boutique at 3169 16th St. in the Mission District is 2 years old now, has doubled down on your standard brand of collaboration, roping in not just JanSport for his new line of bags and blankets, but Oregon's Pendleton Woolen Mills as well.

"I'd already done a collaboration with JanSport - the Mission Pack, which was based on the bag that I wish I'd had in art school - and it sold out in the shop in the first day," said Gold. "I was already talking with Pendleton so I thought, 'Why not bring them in, too?' "

Due out for fall 2013, this new project is called the Native Collection, and features Pendleton wool of Gold's design that's inspired by an American Indian pattern. A small suite of bags will be in wide release, hopefully by August, Gold said, including a laptop sleeve, an iPad case and a backpack. But for those big-game hunters who covet only limited-edition swag, Gold will unveil small numbers of a rolltop bag - "it has the most space to spotlight the fabric," he said - in his shop. It will come with a blanket as well and retail for about $200.

CFDA pops up: By way of more local fashion events, Nordstrom San Francisco Centre is hosting a pop-up shop this month spotlighting the finalists of the 2012 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award. The shop is only selling ladies' duds - get the missus a Valentine's Day gift - but I did talk recently with the Fashion Fund winner (the prize is $300,000 to develop your brand) Greg Chait, of the Elder Statesman.

Based in Los Angeles, Chait makes some of the most luxurious cashmere sweaters, hats, and blankets on the market in his Culver City factory.

The Elder Statesman's men's sweaters can run into the thousands of dollars, though if you press him on the inner workings of his company, Chait is more apt to talk R&D than anything else.

"It's about the fabrication for me," he said.

"I am using the best possible materials that I can get my hands on, making in the best possible way I can find, and I pay my people very well."

Though he's yet to dabble in the American Indian motifs that inspire Gold, an anecdote that touches on similar notes exemplifies the Elder Statesman's commitment to quality and craft.

"My father attended a fair of sorts at the Heard Museum in Arizona. He met a Navajo gentleman that did fantastic spinning and weaving. I received his information, contacted him, and arranged a trip for me to go out to visit him on the reservation." Some 100 pounds of Mongolian cashmere spun and dyed by the man later, Chait had a limited run of five bags. "A long process for five bags," he said, "but it was worth it."

You can get goods from the Elder Statesman at Barneys New York and online at Mr. Porter.

Hlaska sold: On a newsy note, the 7-year-old San Francisco maker of leather goods and apparel, Hlaska, was acquired by a new brand called Guideboat on Dec. 31. Guideboat, headed up by Restoration Hardware founder Stephen Gordon, will make and sell small boats - think dinghies, canoes and a vessel known as the Maine peapod - and will launch in late March with a shop in Mill Valley.

Hlaska founder Anthony Mazzei says that though Hlaska's goods will be folded into Guideboat's offerings, "the cream of the crop of Hlaska will live on" under the Guideboat name.

"Hlaska will no longer exist," he said. "Everything will become Guideboat. Our seven-year portfolio of product goes into Guideboat and will be an arm of the Guideboat experience."

Mazzei has taken on some product development work with the new company, and the Pocket Square will watch with great interest to see just where this Guideboat leads.